Lowe’s Expands Into the Metaverse to Help Shoppers Visualize Projects
Lowe’s is offering customers a chance to use metaverse assets to help visualize building projects. The home improvement retailer is making 500 assets available for free on its own metaverse hub. Lowe's is the first major home improvement retailer to enter the metaverse and make its applicable assets available for free, with the company monitoring consumer behavior to eventually capitalize on the opportunity that might exist. The assets are based on real products Lowe's currently sells online and in its stores.
Total Retail's Take: Growing consumer interest in the metaverse has retailers thinking about how they can have a presence in the virtual world. First is devising a plan to generate consumer engagement in the metaverse; then comes identifying ways to sell products, virtual and hybrid. Lowe's is taking this approach, making its assets available for free download. Leveraging the virtual world as a source of revenue figures to come later as Lowe's learns more about how consumers are behaving in the metaverse.
"Our goal is to take this new frontier and help people use their imaginations and help them make their virtual spaces as exciting and inspirational and enjoyable as their real world spaces," said Marisa Thalberg, Lowe’s executive vice president and chief brand and marketing officer. "That’s the only benefit we seek to obtain at this point.”
Lowe's is just the latest retailer to dip its toes into the metaverse, and many more are likely to follow suit. In fact, we will be addressing this very topic at the upcoming Total Retail Tech event in a panel discussion featuring leading brands PacSun, Forever 21, and others. Total Retail Tech is a free, all-inclusive event that brings select retail executives who oversee technology and marketing strategy together to learn from industry experts and each other in a small-group setting. You can learn more about Total Retail Tech, and register for the event, here.
